Luke 11:42–44

Let my walk be without hypocrisy and my actions reflect Your will. Give me a new heart that shines with Your grace and love for others.

Help me to remember what You expect of me as a believer 

To be fair to all people

To be forgiving knowing that I have been forgiven so much

To always be humble because it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with You.

Now look within you. Look at your sense of right and wrong. Who told you a moral compass exists? What is this magnetic pole that pulls the needles on the compass of your conscience if not God? Heavens above, moral code within. God did this. The wonders above you and within you testify to his existence. But God not only made the world. He loves the world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world.” Try that on for size. The one who formed you pulls for you. Untrumpable power stoked by unstoppable love. Max Lucado

The Lord wants the offering of our hands to reflect the pure devotion of our hearts. When we hold nothing back from Him, He is pleased. May our consuming passion always be to surrender our all to a holy God. First 5

On this week of Ash Wednesday, we focus on--see with clarity--the sureness that death is real (to dust we return). And suffering is real.
But if given the permission to look, to see, we know it’s not the whole story...
“Beloved remember that you are dust and to dust you will return. You will die; this is true. And this is true too: God breathed life into you, imagined goodness for you, and remains with you amid every joy and every sorrow. Beauty is written into your being, grace in every breath, gift in every heartbeat. So, go out into the world, to love and be loved, to serve and to bear witness. Amen.” Terry Hershey “Sabbath Moments”

Luke 11:42–44

42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. 44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.” The New King James Version

Justice and Love for God echoes the two greatest commandments as well as the teaching of the prophets (Micah 6:8). Faithlife Study Bible 

The Pharisees worried about tithing ten percent, even down to the smallest herbs, which were tithed according to the dictates of tradition, not the Law of Moses. The Law spoke of tithing all produce, but what constituted food was debated. Some Pharisees took the strictest interpretation and counted almost anything, including spices. However, they neglected two basic things that the prophets also had warned about: love and justice (Micah. 6:8). 

The Pharisees were like hidden graves. To have contact with a grave or with the dead was to become ceremonially unclean. Anyone or anything in the same room as the dead was considered in Jewish tradition to be impure. This is Jesus’ stronger condemnation. The Pharisees, the paragons of purity, were in fact the height of uncleanness. The NKJV Study Bible

We should all look to our hearts, that they may be cleansed and new-created; and while we attend to the great things of the law and of the gospel, we must not neglect the smallest matter God has appointed. When any wait to catch something out of our mouths, that they may insnare us, O Lord, give us thy prudence and thy patience, and disappoint their evil purposes. Furnish us with such meekness and patience that we may glory in reproaches, for Christ’s sake, and that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon us. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.